The present embodiments relate to a mount for an image receiver.
Mounts for image receivers includes a casing, which encapsulates, for example, an x-ray detector, a scattered radiation grid and an exposure timer. Mounts for x-ray detectors may be used in x-ray diagnostic devices for medical purposes. Other types of image receivers may be supported on mounts, for example, gamma detectors.
Generally, x-ray detectors available on the market include a square or rectangular shape. X-ray films with intensifying screens and phosphor systems generally have a rectangular shape. The solid body matrix detectors described in EP 0 189 710 and made from cesium iodide (CsI) and amorphous silicon (a-Si) or, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,066, made from selenium (Se) and a-Si, have a rectangular, square form. Accordingly, they are supported by rectangular mounts.
Digital x-ray detectors usually include a matrix of detector elements, which are controlled and read out by way of a line-column-based electronics system. A register readout includes lines or columns that are constructed as registers. DE 102 44 177 discloses a reverse-side arrangement of the control elements instead of a peripheral line-column-based arrangement. Using the reverse-side arrangement there is no need to provide the border areas of the detector for the electronics system. For example, this arrangement allows x-ray detectors to be developed with contours other than rectangular contours.
X-ray recording system produce x-ray recordings of the human body. It is desirable to be able to get as close as possible to the human body with the x-ray recording system. With mammographs, for example, the tissue near the chest wall is examined. With chest radiographs, the neck of the patient is also imaged. The existing x-ray recording systems and their formats are not sufficiently adequate to examine the chest wall using chest radiographs.
X-ray recording systems are constructed such that the surface sensitive to x-rays on one side reaches as close as possible to the edge of the image receiver. On this side, in a mammography diagnostic device, for example, the distance from the x-ray film in the film-screen-cassette to the chest wall amounts to a few millimeters when the mount is of a suitable design.
EP 0 908 743 discloses an x-ray recording system having an x-ray detector. The matrix of the areas serving the imaging projects are positioned as near as possible to the body of the person to be examined, so that examinations of points that are difficult to reach are also possible. One of the sides of the x-ray detector is a section with a curved contour, so that the x-ray detector may be adjusted to the anatomic factors, and may be immediately adducted towards the body of a patient.
By using the x-ray detector disclosed in EP 0 908 743, lung radiographs, for example, may be created. The x-ray detector is supported on a mount, which features a “chin depression” on its above-lying edge. The curved section of the x-ray detector is adjusted to the chin depression and rests against this on the inside of the mount. The patient places his/her chin into this depression. In this arrangement, the distance from the active surface of the x-ray detector to the examination point is kept to a minimum. Also in this arrangement, the patient is able to be centered with respect to the x-ray detector.
As disclosed in EP 0 908 743, the positioning of the x-ray detector to the x-ray emitter is restricted because the chin depression must be arranged above so that the patient can place his/her chin inside. For example, the x-ray detector may be rotated about 180° so that the active surface can lie on the opposite side. With this rotation, the chin depression is arranged on the lower lying edge of the x-ray detector, so that at least one lung radiograph is no longer expediently possible, because the patient is unable to place his/her chin into the chin depression from below.